P.M. Edition for April 7. Amrith Ramkumar, who covers tech policy for the Journal, discusses how President Trump’s tariffs risk undercutting his goals of curbing inflation, supporting U.S. manufacturing and boosting a build-out of AI data centers. Plus, Trump threatens China with an additional 50% levy if Beijing doesn’t withdraw its retaliatory tariff by tomorrow. And U.S. markets went on a wild swing that added—and then erased—more than $2 trillion in value in a matter of minutes. WSJ markets reporter Hannah Erin Lang walks us through what happened. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What are Trump's latest tariff threats against China?
President Trump threatens China with an additional 50% levy if Beijing doesn't withdraw its retaliatory tariff by tomorrow. Plus, it was a rollercoaster day for markets after a false tariff headline sent stocks on a $2 trillion ride. And what Trump's tariffs mean for the other policy items on his agenda.
He's been fascinated by tariffs for many decades, and in the first administration didn't think he went far enough, essentially. So definitely he's almost willing to maybe potentially sacrifice some of the other things on his agenda to get what he wants with tariffs.
It's Monday, April 7th. I'm Alex Osola for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.
it was a volatile day in the markets first they rallied in the morning in response to erroneous headlines that president trump would delay the implementation of tariffs by 90 days the administration clarified that there will be no delay in implementing new levies leading to stocks dropping
Chapter 2: How did false tariff headlines impact the stock market?
Later in the morning, President Trump said he plans to increase tariffs on China by 50 percent starting Wednesday if the country doesn't withdraw its retaliatory tariff increase on the U.S. by tomorrow. China said last week it would hit all U.S. goods with an additional 34 percent levy starting Thursday.
In a social media post today, Trump added that talks with China to arrange meetings would be terminated. Stocks dropped again in response. In the afternoon, speaking from the Oval Office, Trump confirmed that he's not considering a broad pause on tariffs. But he opened the door for individual countries to negotiate tariff rates.
He said that there can be both permanent tariffs and also negotiations. A wild stock market swing based on that false information about a possible tariff pause added $2.4 trillion in value and erased it almost as quickly this morning. The episode played out in just over a half an hour.
In the end, the Dow fell 0.9 percent, the S&P 500 was down 0.2 percent, and the Nasdaq finished 0.1 percent higher. For more on the market moves, I'm joined by WSJ reporter Hannah Aron-Lang. So, Hannah, it's been a pretty wild ride.
Chapter 3: Why are investors seeking clarity on Trump's tariff policy?
Yeah, it's been a very volatile trading day. And most of this just comes down to the fact that investors are still really searching for clarity, for answers, or even just clues about the direction of Donald Trump's tariff policy and additionally how other countries will respond. respond to that, which companies here in the U.S. will be most exposed to that policy.
It really just all orbits around these questions about tariffs. What does this volatility tell us? We've certainly seen today, just given the wild swings in stocks over the course of the trading day, that there's a growing desperation among investors for some clarity on what lies ahead. It tells us that developments on the tariff front can have a really huge impact in markets right now.
We saw this brief mid-morning rally today, kind of wild swing up and down after there were these erroneous headlines that President Trump was considering a 90-day pause in tariffs. That report turned out to be false. The White House denied it. But it prompted a really big lift in major stock indexes, then promptly reversed after we found out it wasn't true.
And there are kind of two ways to interpret that based on the reporting I've done today. I spoke to some investors who saw that as a reassuring sign that any positive catalyst on the trade front could make a big difference for investors and for markets. The more pessimistic way to view that is a sign of that increasing desperation among the investment community and on Wall Street.
That was WSJ reporter Hannah Aaron Lang. Thanks so much, Hannah. Thank you for having me. Speaking after meeting President Trump in Washington, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today that he wants to completely erase the trade deficit between the U.S. and Israel, opening up negotiations on tariffs that the U.S. imposed last week.
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Chapter 4: How is the EU responding to U.S. tariffs?
Meanwhile, the European Union is preparing its first round of retaliatory tariffs. EU Commissioner Marš Šefčević said that these won't target the same value of goods as the U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs, though he didn't specify the value of goods they will cover. Šefčević said that the bloc continues to be open to negotiations with the U.S.
We have offered zero for zero tariffs for cars and all industrial goods. Second, let's be clear. However, engaging the U.S. will take both time and effort. Right now, we are in the early stages of discussions because the U.S. views tariffs not as a tactical step, but as a corrective measure. We are fully prepared to sit at negotiation table whenever our American partners are ready.
The commissioner added that the EU would not wait forever. EU member states are expected to vote this week on a final list of U.S. goods that will be subject to the EU's retaliation for U.S. metal tariffs. If the list is approved, some of those tariffs will start to take effect on April 15th.
European officials are also weighing further measures to respond to President Trump's automotive tariffs and so-called reciprocal tariffs. Coming up, how are Trump's tariffs affecting other items on the president's agenda? That's after the break. Over the past week or so, President Trump's tariffs have dominated the national conversation.
Chapter 5: How might tariffs affect Trump's broader policy agenda?
And though tariffs are just one of the president's agenda items, they could have ripple effects across a number of other policy issues. Amrith Ramkumar, who covers tech policy for The Journal, is here to tell us more. Amrith, you write that Trump's tariffs risk undercutting his goals of curbing inflation, reducing drug prices, supporting U.S.
manufacturing, and boosting the build-out of AI data centers. What do these things have in common that they're so negatively affected by the tariffs?
They're all driven by these globally interconnected supply chains that have developed over many, many years and decades. So trying to unwind them in a short period of time just isn't feasible. In many cases, there are labor shortages and high-skilled labor shortages. So getting the talent that you need to do this type of work is often difficult.
very difficult, whether you're looking in the tech sector, healthcare, other industries. And we're really dependent still on countries like China for so many raw materials and chemicals and basic things like screws. So even though the president says this is going to boost U.S. manufacturing and create all these jobs, there are a lot of reasons why that might not be the case in the short term.
What does this tell us about the president's priorities, tariffs versus everything else on his agenda?
This moment tells everyone that President Trump wasn't lying when he was on the campaign trail and said he was going to use tariffs to achieve his goals. He's been fascinated by tariffs for many decades, and in the first administration didn't think he went far enough, essentially, so he's really trying to rectify what he sees as an unjust trade situation.
So definitely that he's almost willing to maybe potentially sacrifice some of the other things on his agenda to get what he wants with tariffs.
That was WSJ reporter Amrit Ramkumar. Thank you, Amrit.
Thanks so much for having me.
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